Valparaiso, Indiana

Step Four-Practice makes perfect: have fun

Advanced oboists need to practice between 30-60 minutes daily for best results.  Trying to make practice fun is the key to success. Doing the same routine daily leads to boredom and less productive practice.  Not having a good a good oboe reed to play reduces the motivation significantly.

It is important that advanced oboists have a private oboe teacher by this stage of oboe playing  who will perform with you, demonstrate the best oboe techniques, help you prepare great oboe literature, and adjust your reeds so that you always have at least three great reeds at all times.

Your instrument needs to be adjusted, cleaned, and oiled at least once or twice per year.  Some pads may need to be replaced and adjustment screws aligned for ease of playing all notes on your instrument.

Practicing for the advanced oboist can be approached many ways but here are some suggestions that you may find very helpful and motivating.

Begin your practice with music you like the most from previous year, perform solos you have memorized, or play excerpts from you favorite band or orchestra selections.

Step two should be the new material for the week-techniques to improve your sound, finger technique, vibrato, phrasing, dynamics, and articulation.  This can be music from oboe solos, duets, chamber music, band, orchestra or method books.

Step three should be a solo piece you are preparing for contest or your next public performance.  If you are not performing as a soloist on a regular basis you should know the great oboe solo literature.

Step four is performing great chamber music for two, three, or four players.This is fun and exciting.  Start your own chamber group.  Give the group a name.  Perform in your town for organizations, hospitals, senior centers, preschools, churches, or convalescent homes.  Most people do not hear very much live acoustic classical music.  With practice and good coaching your group will quickly become popular and in demand for special occasions.

End your daily practice with with your favorite pieces of music you are performing now.  If you do not perform your favorite pieces of music by memory try to memorized at least 8 measures per day.  You will be surprised how much you will memorize in a short period of time.  If you have CD recordings of your favorite oboe solos play along with the soloist and piano/orchestra.

It is important to enjoy your daily practice.  Create your own theme and variation of the above suggestions.
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For information on becoming a distributor call 219-464-3390 or email info@stradellareeds.com.

Students and oboists, our reeds are available at several locations and online. See our website for purchasing information: http://stradellareeds.com/find_us